By Bev Mortimer, 19 September, edited – Rob Evans, accused of premeditated murder of his 36 year-old girlfriend, Vanessa van Rensburg on Easter Sunday this year in the Eastern Cape village of Oyster Bay, faces a long lengthy time in prison still.
His bail application was struck from the roll yesterday, 18 September, in the Eastern Cape High Court in Gqeberha/PE .
His push for bail in the Oyster Bay murder case took a procedural detour this week, leaving Rob Evans to mark more time at St Albans Prison.
Judge Nyameko Gqamana struck Evans’ appeal from the roll after hearing from both sides as Humansdorp Regional Court magistrate Deidre Dickson said she was not served the notice of appeal until 9 September, long after the filing on 29 July. Plus she has not yet supplied the complete court transcript or her additional reasons for denying bail back on 9 July. Dickson, in an affidavit, flagged her intent to expand on her original ruling and until that is filed and the full record lands with the high court, no new date for arguments will be set.
This means Evans, the 58-year Evans a PE businessman and father of three, stays locked up for now. He has been in custody since his 9 May arrest at his Newton Park office. An autopsy showed Vanessa suffered at least 23 injuries from a beating and strangling at Evans’ holiday home in Oyster Bay.
Evans has signalled he will plead not guilty. His lawyers, Danie Gouws and Paul Roelofse, stated they filed the appeal on 29 July, arguing Dickson overlooked holes in the state’s evidence and wrongly slotted the case as a Schedule 6 offence, which ramped up hurdles to bail.
The state, now helmed by veteran senior advocate Marius Stander, who nailed the Christopher Panayiotou conviction and other big ones, fired back that the defence missed the mark under Section 65(3) of the Criminal Procedure Act. That section requires serving the notice on the attorney-general and magistrate pronto, with the magistrate then having 10 working days to deliver or beef up her reasons.
Gouws countered that service was spot-on 28 July and 29 July to the NPA, magistrate’s clerk, and high court.
The prosecutors maintain Evans was the only other person in the house that night, backed by neighbour reports of a man and woman arguing loudly from the property.
There is no timeline yet on when Dickson’s full reasons will be revealed, but the high court docket will dictate the next move.
St Francis Chronicle first broke the news of the murder in its neighbouring town of Oyster Bay, and will continue to bring updates on this criminal case. Watch this space…
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